Hennessey17
Well-Known Member
What pisses me off is that some people are so tribalistic that they only see "the other" side doing it... they miss everything they're contributing to the problem.I grew up on ATV's, starting in the late 80's until I moved over to Jeeps in 2003. This is a CORE part of Tread Lightly, which is a principle every group I've ever been a part of has not only encouraged, but enforced. Good on your for picking up the trash. I try to carry a roll of bags in my Jeep every time we go out.
You know who's doing it?
Local scumbags. People who have beater rigs and just want to "Send it" and are "Just out for a good time." We've run into some of them- same type of people, different locations- and to them a "good time" equates to getting shitfaced drunk, and bouncing off the Rev Limiter while bouncing off rocks/ trees. Sometimes getting high. OR, they're dumping their garbage because they don't want to pay for a permit to their local town dump. Hell, they caught some shitbag contractor doing it on one of the trailheads to a trail we used to run in VT.
Point is, these people aren't organized, or even really into off roading. They're lazy, local trailer trash, and when you confront them, you get the same, idiotic, selfish, response their singular brain cell can muster: "AIN'T NOBODY GONNA TELL ME WHAT I CAN'T DO! ITZ MAH FREEDUMBZ!"
And this shit has been going on forever- so you can't blame "the kids" or "Social media" because I was seeing it as a kid in the 90's, when I was riding ATV's with my family. It's the same type of people in every single generation, and the only way they stop is when they have to sell their rig, either out of boredom or necessity.
Sorry for the rant, it just infuriates me.
How do we stop it? I wish I had an easy answer.
The best we can do is keep making efforts to leave the trails we use better than we found them and also work with local forest rangers/ authorities when we run across people like this.
Whatever your political leanings are... your people are doing it, too. And from reading all the comments in the thread... this includes several people here (blaming only the other side... not littering).
I have some very opinionated thoughts on this subject and in politics... neither side are angels.
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